During WWII, the United States recruited English women to serve as secretaries in the American Army. That's how my mother and father met. They worked in the same office - some sort of gas mask supply unit. She was a secretary; he lucked out and was not sent to the front lines because he had been drafted out of college where he was chemistry major. Later, they were both sent to France and then on to Germany. They got married in Paris.

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My parents met in the Air Force - he failed her on her first RAF driving test! My uncle was posted to Yorkshire towards the end of the war, and married a woman from there. I don't think there was anything similar in WW1, grandad and his sister were already married by then. I would love to know how my grandfather's cousin, a middle-aged naval petty officer, came to marry a woman from Camberwell in 1910!

Pay, KentCodham/Coltham, KentKent, Felton, EssexStaples, Wiltshire

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My parents didn't meet until 1962 but I do wonder if my Dad (who was older would have married someone else had it not been for the war.

I know that one set of my daughter's great grandparents met because of the war. She was from Berkshire and he was a Scottish boy who had been called up into the RAF and was based close to her home at the end of the war.

I wonder about WW1 and my my maternal grandparents. They did not marry until their 30s and wonder if there had been someone else but the war had got in the way.

My father was born in Brazil to English parents (grandfather employed in the English gold mining company in Morro Velho, Minas Gerais, Brazil), educated in England, passed his flying test in Hamble in 1937. In 1940 he was called up, as a pilot. He returned to England, however, it was found during his medical that his eye sight was failing. He was then assigned to Air Sea Rescue duties at various places. In 1943 he met my mother, a Dorset WAAF in Torquay. They married later that year, and in 1946 they moved to Brazil. Of their 8 children, I'm the only one who returned to live in England...

My father in law went to England as NZ volunteer naval reserve. For airforce training. Failed exam, so stayed Navy.Introduced to family of mother in law in Liverpool by someone. Younger sister opened door, announced to all he looked like Alec Guinness. Mother in law added him to her list of pen pals (she was found out as she put letters in the wrong envelopes!).They married Oct 1944. After VE he was back in NZ on leave prior to posting into the pacific. He was still in Auckland at end of war. NZ govt arranged transport for all the war brides. She decided she wasn’t coming and turned down her ticket. father “spoke to her” and said she had to at least give it a try and he would find the money for her to go back to England if necessary. So she and her brother trekked down to London to the NZ high commission to beg for ticket back, (luckily she was an officers wife). Out she came. Housing was in short supply, 3 married couples lived with his parents. One couple in a sunroom accessed through my in-laws bedroom! Despite this all three couples managed to conceive! F in law got a rehab loan and they were able to build a TINY house. Then she took baby and went back to Liverpool. She stayed a year, and then came back. Just as well as my husband born after that!

currently concentrating on NUTCHER & MARSHALL families, Hampshire. and family of Thomas ANDERSON a Tailor of Perth, Scotland

My Dad was a medic in the Canadian Army and was stationed near Brighton during WWII. He met my Mom at a dance at the COOP in 1943 and they were married in 1945. He was shipped back home after the war but my Mom had to wait almost a year to see him again as she was pregnant with me. But in 1946 my Mom and I came to Canada on a troop ship with many other war brides and their children. If not for the war I know they would never have met. The war brought them together and they had a long wonderful life together here in Canada. Unfortunately my Mom never saw her own Mom again and was only able to visit England once in later years.

My mother's first husband (a lady's man) was in the army and away from his wife & son, this eventually lead to divorce. My father, (born in Manchester but living in Canada) was posted to the England where he met my mother (and her son), they later married and had 3 other children, I being the youngest.

You could say the war was both the reason of the break up of my mother's first marriage and the meeting of her second husband.CheersGuy

My parents met during WW2 when my father knocked on my mother's door looking for family of an army mate. My father was a country boy and I doubt he would have left there but for the war. Mum was a city girl.

Looking back to WW1 my maternal grandparents married in 1915, but he wasn't in the forces as he had TB. My paternal grandparents married after the war and I have found no record of him serving.

Both my parents came to the UK from Europe, as children before the outbreak of WWll.The British Forces would not recruit aliens of course, but they were enlisted by the American Forces as translators, which is how they met.

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